Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) foreign ministry’s spokesman on Tuesday called on the international community to urgently prevent Israel from committing genocide against Palestinians.

Balkhi said on X: “Cutting water, food, medicine & electricity supplies, martyrdom of 704 civilians, including 143 children and 105 women, & deliberate targeting of homes, mosques, hospitals & ambulances in the Gaza Strip by the brutal Israeli forces amounts of war crimes & crimes against humanity.”

He added: “We urge world countries & bodies, particularly Muslim countries and the UN, to urgently prevent the Zionist regime from committing a genocide which unfortunately has the support of the US and some European countries.”

The call came as Israel pounded the Gaza Strip on Tuesday with the fiercest air strikes in the 75-year history of its conflict with the Palestinians, razing whole districts to dust despite a Hamas threat to execute a captive for each home hit.

Israel has vowed “mighty revenge” since Hamas fighters rampaged through its towns, leaving streets strewn with bodies in by far the deadliest attack in its history.

It has called up hundreds of thousands of reservists and placed Gaza, crowded home to 2.3 million people, under total siege.

Israeli media said deaths from Saturday’s Hamas attacks had reached 900, mostly civilians gunned down in homes, on streets or at a desert dance party.

Scores of Israelis and some foreigners were taken to Gaza as hostages. Some were paraded through the streets.

Gaza’s health ministry said Israel’s retaliatory strikes had killed at least 770 people and wounded more than 4,000. The air strikes, already the heaviest ever, intensified on Tuesday night, shaking the ground and pouring columns of smoke and flames into the morning sky.

The United Nations said more than 180,000 Gazans had been made homeless, many huddling on streets or in schools. Bombardment shut roads to emergency crews.